The 193-member UN General Assembly on Thursday voted to adopt a draft resolution moved by the US to suspend Russia from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Observing that 140 United Nations member states have already voted to condemn Russia over its unprovoked war and the humanitarian crisis it has unleashed upon the people of Ukraine, Thomas-Greenfield said Russia should not have a position of authority in that body, nor should the international community allow Russia to use their role on the Council as a tool of propaganda to suggest they have a legitimate concern about human rights.
Pakistan on Wednesday failed to win a re-election to the United Nations' human rights body. The 193-member General Assembly voted here to elect 18 new members of the UN Human Rights Council.
The announcement came barely a day after the UNHRC condemned the Trump administration for its policy of separating children from the families at the US-Mexico border.
The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot.
Sri Lanka on Wednesday stoutly opposed a United States sponsored resolution coming up against the country at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council, terming it as "unfair and unjust".
Extrajudicial executions, often disguised as encounters with armed criminals, have become the norm and are widely reported in Indian media. Torture and arbitrary detentions continue, not just in insurgency-affected areas, but also in most police stations in the country. Yet, India continues to provide effective immunity from prosecution to its security forces and other public officials, HRW laments.
The UN working group on the use of mercenaries warned that private security company employees are often provided immunity and are only answerable to their employers. The report said that these 'militarily armed private soldiers' are deployed in war-torn regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Colombia, and are often responsible for serious human rights violations.
Every UN secretary-general has flagged the financial situation, but Antonio Guterres has issued the direst warning yet, calling it a 'race to bankruptcy and of imminent financial collapse, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva, is expected to ratify draft principles which will recognize India's caste system as a human rights abuse.
India played a key role in making the Human Rights Council possible.
AG Mukul Rohatgi led the Indian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council.
President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from over 60 international organisations, including United Nations bodies and the India-France-led International Solar Alliance, calling the institutions 'redundant' and 'contrary' to America's interests.
UN intervention has been sought to address the grievances of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Asserting that democracy is an 'alien' concept for Pakistan, India has called upon Islamabad to end grave human rights violations in territories under its illegal occupation, where the population is in 'open revolt' against military occupation, repression, brutality and exploitation.
'Why he wasn't released, and why he had to die in custody?'
Some 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India, and 16,000 of them have received refugee documentation, the UN estimates.
India was voted to have a one-year term.
Silva's name was mentioned in the resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2013, alleging rights abuses by the Sri Lankan Army.
Raising the issue of Balochistan for the first time before the United Nation, India on Wednesday accused Pakistan of widespread human rights violations there as well as in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The BRICS nations have expressed concern over the proliferation of trade-restrictive actions in the form of 'indiscriminate rising' of tariffs, particularly measures used as a means of 'coercion', cautioning that such practices risk marginalising the Global South countries.
A United Nations commission of inquiry has found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
'Human rights issues continue to be exploited selectively, more often for narrow short-term political ends,' Modi tells Ban.
They also used YouTube extensively to learn how to create Improvised Explosive Devices for carrying out terror attacks. Digital footprints analysed during the interrogation identified the primary handlers as 'Ukasa', 'Faizan' and 'Hashmi'.
In a secret-ballot voting in the 193-member UN General Assembly on that race, Pakistan secured 169 votes.
India abstained on the resolution, along with France, Japan, Netherlands, and Romania among others. Those voting against the resolution included Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany and the US.
The UN General Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution which calls for counter-terrorism measures, including the use of remotely-piloted aircraft or drones, to comply with international law.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council and prohibiting any future funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Trump also directed the US to review its participation in UNESCO, citing concerns about anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the organizations. The executive order argues that the UNHRC, UNESCO, and UNRWA have drifted from their missions and act contrary to US interests. Trump previously halted funds for UNRWA during his first term, and President Joe Biden put a block on US funds for UNRWA in January 2024 over allegations that staff for the agency participated in Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Sri Lanka on Monday said the global community cannot raise issues of rights violations against it unless guided by "political reasons," as a top United States official arrived in Colombo coinciding with the United Nations rights council meeting to discuss alleged war crimes during the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam conflict.
India on Wednesday voted in favour of a draft resolution tabled in the UN Human Rights Council that condemns and strongly rejects recent "public and premeditated" acts of desecration of the Quran.
India on Thursday abstained on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka which was adopted.
As the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a United States-sponsored resolution on human rights violations in Sri Lanka, prominent rights groups on Thursday criticised it for failing to establish an independent international investigation into alleged crimes.
Taking to Twitter, United Nations Human Right Council said, 'At its 35th special session, the @UN Human Rights Council decided to create a new fact-finding mission to investigate alleged #HumanRightsViolations in the Islamic Republic of #Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022.'
India on Thursday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The Centre's move on Chandigarh has raised the hackles of various parties in Punjab, with Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal terming it as a "direct attack" on Punjab's identity and constitutional rights.
India abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution regarding Afghanistan, citing the need for a balanced approach that combines incentives and disincentives, and calling for new initiatives to address the humanitarian crisis.
Gandhi urged the prime minister to speak out "clearly, boldly and forthrightly" on behalf of the legacy that India has long represented.
The Dravida Munetra Kazhagam on Tuesday demanded that India should bring a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council for bestowing rights to Sri Lankan Tamils to decide a political solution by themselves, contending that the government there has failed on this account.
Organisations in the United States -- that have been campaigning against granting a US visa to Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- plan to lodge a complaint against him at the United Nations Human Rights Council with regard to his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
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